OLTL Tribute Thread

[cassadine1991]

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Officially entering the Malone/Gottlieb years

[Vee]

Maybe let's not post the videos in the thread.

[Vee]

A very haunting scene with Bo and the grieving old man in the park (cemetery?) with the addled man having a soliloquy about his wife and birds covering her body, in her hair, etc. in the ground in the 9/9/91 episode. Between that and the pathos and later intensity of the Sheila/Troy scenes after she's ousted from the play you can't tell me Malone wasn't already in the building on these scripts. That and Carlo turning much darker again the next day - backhanding Stephanie with his ring hand when she calls Charlotte a whore.

[Vee]

I'm sure this has been in another thread, but Valarie Pettiford (Sheila) discusses her daytime career at length (and she is a big soap fan). She starts in about OLTL around 17 mins.

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I love her more and more every time I watch as I've revisited the '90s and specifically the rape trial saga - I mostly only remembered Stephanie Williams' blander Sheila from when I was a kid. I'd like to believe Hank and Pettiford's Sheila are back together today.

[Vee]

Eternal moments in time:

Another stylish, intense sequence on 9/12 where Lee Ann is in turmoil with all the voices in her head (including her dead mother) during the stormy night after NW's Max walks out on her yet again (she usually does most of the walking out, actually). I feel like Lee Ann and Max have dumped each other and gotten back together like half a dozen times since July and it's gotten very old. His rationale is kind of nonsensical this time - he understands her sleeping with a dude while they were on a break but she didn't tell him and took Asa's payoff, so now she's just like Gabrielle, sleeping around on him. Okay?! Watching Lee Ann once again pack her things for like the 10th time makes me think she's on a schedule - 'if ah leave town forever now ah can be back in Llanview again by Sunday!'

It still trips me out a bit when Gottlieb/Malone (who this clearly is by now, with Tina's fortune cookie foretelling 'a mysterious stranger will drop into your life') reference Rauch stuff like Gabrielle, or Sheila noting the Daughters of Llanview have to accept Brenda McGillis as Michael Grande's rich widow. It's a pity Gabrielle's final eps are not (to my knowledge) on YT, but we can't have everything.

The Dorian fantasy sequence with Jason is silly but also pretty sexy - they have heat. Even he and Robyn Griggs have some. "I came for take out!" was hilarious.

If you weren't around for all of them together (which I wasn't) you don't know just how close Tina, Megan, Cord and the kids were to each other. I've watched less of the Rauch years so I don't know if Andrea's Tina sat around with the kids in the kitchen like this too; I hope so. It was lovely to see her do just that sometimes in her return stints in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Also notable is the new regime having Karen's Tina reflecting on wanting to be her own woman outside of Cord. I assume by now they knew Loprieno was leaving but who knows. I know there are stories that he and Witter didn't get along but I wish they'd had a real run under this regime because they are good together. Not that I didn't like Cain and Tina, but he's not Cord. Of course if I'd seen more of the Rauch-era Cord and Tina maybe the chauvinism would turn me off.

Also great: A drunken Asa and Nigel singing a melancholy Scottish song. Asa being weirdly obsessed with still claiming Max as his heir (who he now knows is not his son, and will inexplicably repeat this entire plotline again under JFP in '99/'00 for no good reason) is written so strangely and I do like the new writing team correctly having Renee and Cord point out that his obsession doesn't make sense. But it became such a throughline for both characters, given their future conflicts in the Luna and Blair years, the past family beef I don't know much about with Wingate Holden and the love/hate relationship that persisted into the 2000s. I guess in hindsight what it was about (though it's not often well written onscreen via the prior team) is that he thought Max was closest in identity to him than his own sons - a rapacious schemer and power player - and kept trying to make that fit work, while Max was torn between embracing it and rejecting it for a variety of reasons including his own family. It's fitting Max turned up for Asa's funeral that last time.

Amusing too: Just like the infamous Storm of Change in 2003, Malone's first run is augured by a Llanview thunderstorm the night before Luna touches down. Sorry to spam, y'all.

Edited December 13, 2024 by Vee

[Franko]

I'm so glad you're caught up, @Vee. The endless back and forth between Lee Ann and Max led me to start skipping their scenes. Greyhound must have loved Lee Ann.

 

[Vee]

It's ridiculous. I feel like she's spent the bulk of her scenes for 2+ months just packing and vowing to leave town and then returning and heading back to work!

In other news Michael Malone is officially here, and it's good to know some things still prove out through the years; this show got real horny real quickly and that intense psychosexual undercurrent ran through his show in both eras in many storylines (Malone II opened on Troy and Lindsay having kinky and pretty explicit sex before Nora's eyes). I highly doubt Jason and Stephanie sporting matching scars (due to Carlo's domestic abuse) is unintentional - and of course echoes Todd later - and their scenes are both hot and vaguely kinky. After months of drippy teen love with Kevin and Stephanie set to Miami Sound Machine, a sexually frustrated Stephanie goads the street kid her abusive uncle hired until they get down to business. You don't get this shít on GH today! Griggs and Brettschneider are pretty fiery together but I assume by this point they'd already decided to can her which was probably for the best, Stephanie had limited potential unless she went full spoiled vixen (which seems to be closer to who RG was off-camera based on some cast recollections). Still, an impressive shift.

Probably a lukewarm and well-worn take, but based on these early weeks and months Jason was at least a proto-Todd experiment for Gottlieb and Malone. Obviously they never had any inkling of creating Todd at this time or what he'd become, but a scarred town bad boy with a wounded heart and animal passion? That's Jason Webb. Of course he became a much sweeter and more earnest character later on who I'm more familiar with and always liked, but it's striking to see the sexual frankness on display with Jason here and then have him switch on a dime when Stephanie initially refuses him and have him say 'no is no,' until she reengages. Makes you wonder what could've been if they'd stuck with him and not Todd.

It must be said: Nicholas Walker's whimpering goodbye scene with Little Al was giving Zachary Levi Instagram Live. @DRW50 knows what I mean.

Edited December 13, 2024 by Vee

[Liberty City]

Was never a One Life person but, I have to say, in clips from the 1980's/1990's, I can see why many enjoyed the soap. It's much stronger in presentation during that time, under a more effective creative direction than that of Frank Valentini/the "writer".

And, may I say: I much prefer Elaine Princi as Dorian Lord. The scenes I have seen her in are just... whew. She held so much command in that role. Yes, Robin Strasser's work outside of the "writer" is better, but she just felt too disconnected for me to enjoy. She gave me Susan Lucci vibes, and that's not good to me.

[Franko]

Farewell, Nicholas Walker's Max Holden. At least, I'm assuming Monday, Sept. 16 was his last episode. It would be kinda appropriate if he hung around for one last unnecessary goodbye to Lee Ann.

[Franko]

How long did Eddie & Quincy, Cassie's frienemies at The Banner, last? Did they fade away after Bo & Cassie ended? Eddie's kinda cute.

[Vee]

I did not realize Bo worked at the Banner this much, lol. I don't remember when exactly he got appointed to the LPD.

[Franko]

To be fair, most of Bo's recent workdays have been devoted to defending the honor of his girlfriend.

[Vee]

It's true!

[Vee]

This medical misdiagnosis subplot with Wanda (straight out of The Golden Girls, and just revisited on Patrick Mulcahey's GH) seems like Brenda McGillis' last storyline. She still slots in fairly well. I wonder how long it goes on. It's surreal seeing her actively involved at this late date. The way Wanda talked about her and Larry sounded like they were back together, but I have no idea if they were at this point.

They were clearly already experimenting a lot with camera angles, movements and transitions. The extended Cord/Tina cuddle on the couch in the previous episode as well as the long tracking shot through the Banner loading dock to Kevin sleeping rough were very lengthy pans across the sets that felt very cinematic and took up a lot of time - probably too much, but it was obviously Gottlieb feeling her way through how to present soap in a new way.

Robyn Griggs is actually pretty good in the fallout of her hook-up with Jason (and confessing to Megan - awkward!) but I still wouldn't have kept her long. I do love the guitar music cue they use in a lot of this stuff that sounds like it's out of Twin Peaks.

Did I miss a scene where Bo and Cassie actually discussed marriage prior to her talk with Dorian and Herb when she acted like it was an active topic? All I remember them talking about in bed (when Dorian crashed) was moving in together, which is also too soon considering I think they've only been officially dating since what, June? July? Insane that Cassie would even think of marrying Bo so soon but I guess it serves their story arc with bringing Sarah back.

Edited December 17, 2024 by Vee

[John]

This episode was weird

I cant believe this was the Jason Webb that left in 1994

Stephanie is just badly written and then having Kevin Manhandle her. I read that Stephanie officially leaves for good in May 1992 and that Kirk Geiger takes over as Kevin June 1992. 

Then a drive by Chanda Wilson

Was Babs Bartlett a major recurring character at this time? 

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Edited December 18, 2024 by John